France has unveiled the four titles in the running to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy awards.
They are:
- All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia (Production, Petit Chaos; int’l sales Luxbox; U.S. distrib, Sideshow and Janus Films )
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte (production, Chapter 2 and Pathé Films; int’l sales, Pathé International, U.S. Distrib, Samuel Goldwyn Films)
- Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard (production, Why Not Productions and Page 114; int’l sales The Veterans; U.S. distrib, Netflix)
- Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie (Production, CG Cinéma; int’l sales Les Films du Losange; U.S. distrib, Sideshow and Janus Films)
This year’s candidate is being decided by a restructured selection committee – featuring Venice Golden Lion winner Audrey Diwan and Oscar winners, writer, director and producer Florian Zeller and producer Patrick Wachsberger – as France attempts to break a 30-year awards drought in the category, even its cinema talents have been feted in other categories.
Frontrunners in the list are Emilia Pérez and The Count of Monte Cristo.
Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez, about a Mexican drug-lord having a sex change, made history in Cannes after its star Karla Sofia Gascón became the first transgender actress to win its Best Actress prize. The film, which also features Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez in cast, also won the Cannes Jury Prize.
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Swashbuckler The Count of Monte Cristo stars Pierre Niney as the iconic of protagonist of the classic revenge tale, with other members of the cast including Bastien Bouillon, Anaïs Demoustier, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte and Pierfrancesco Favino
Having world premiered Out of Competition at Cannes, the film has sold eight million tickets in France.
France last won the international film Oscar with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine in 1993. Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables was the last French film to make it through to the final nomination stage in 2020.
There was upset last year, after the committee selected Tran Anh Hung’s period drama The Taste of Things, over hot favorite, Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall.
The Taste of Things, starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, made it to the short list but was not nominated.
Neon ran a far buzzier campaign in other categories for Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in five categories, including best film and best actress for Sandra Hüller, and won best screenplay for Triet and Arthur Harari.
The new-look committee is composed of eleven members and five substitutes, against the previous format of seven members.
Drawn from the artistic and industry sides of the French film world, most the members of this year’s committee have ample awards experience.
They sales agents Carole Baraton, producer Nadim Cheikhroua (Four Daughters), Venice Golden Lion winning Happening director and writer Diwan, distributor, producer and writer Michèle Halberstadt, sales agent Grégoire Melin, actress Clémence Poésy, producer David Thion (Anatomy of a Fall), producer and distributor Rosalie Varda, producer Wachsberger (CODA) and director, writer and producer Florian Zeller (The Father).
Under the two-part French Oscar candidate selection process, the committee met on Wednesday to decide the short list.
They will announce their final choice of candidate on September 18, after auditioning the sales agents, producers and U.S. distributors of the shortlisted titles.
All the candidates were released theatrically in France for at least seven days between November 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024.
The deadline for submission to the Best International Feature Film category of the 97th Academy Awards is October 2.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will unveil the 15-film shortlist in the category on December 17. The five nominees in the category will be announced on January 17, 2025, ahead of the award ceremony on March 2.
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